Water colors her world

Linda White’s favorite subject is always changing. It turns colors in different light, reflects the world above it, rarely holds its shape for more than an instant. The artist does her painting at a home studio in Balboa, but most of her research comes from peering over the side of a boat.

On Nov. 1, White’s one-woman painting show, “Impressions of Water,” opened at the Newport Beach Central Library. The oil paintings in the show, most of which capture the patterns and colors of sun on the water, came from her trips to the Sea of Cortez, the Mexican coast and just off the beach in Newport.

Back in the 1970s, when White belonged to an art association in Princeton, N.J., her teacher advised her to look for inspiration in everyday life. When she moved to Newport Beach in 1998, it was easy to find a subject.

“He taught me very much about choosing an idea and making it very strong, synthesizing the work down to the basics of the idea and also painting from your own experience,” White said. “At that time, it would have been landscapes because we were going out into the landscape. For these paintings, it would be about going on the water.”

White, who with her husband owns a sailboat and is an avid swimmer, has been painting for more than three decades.

She had an exhibit a few years ago at a restaurant in Newport Beach, but her current display marks her first gallery show in her hometown.

Still, she’s hardly new to the public eye. White’s paintings have been shown in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and have been included in the permanent collections of the New Jersey State Museum, Princeton University, numerous private collections and even the U.S. embassy in Japan.

Earlier this year, White attended the opening of a friend’s exhibit at the library, and Jana Barbier, the city’s cultural arts coordinator, asked to see some of her work.

The exhibition committee, Barbier said, liked the fact that White was a local artist and admired the sensory detail of her pictures.

“I think she approached her painting from a very physical level, and she talks a lot about all her senses affected by water and how that comes out in her imagery,” Barbier said.

On Nov. 28, White will appear at a reception at the library from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Most of the works in the show, she said, represent her last phase of art, but at least one of the paintings started her on a new track.

“Capsize 2,” which was inspired by a time White tipped over in a small boat, has inspired her to paint more images about water safety and emergency issues at sea.

In any case, she’s grateful to have her work displayed in a place that has a ready-made audience.

“I feel that this venue for me at the library is a very good one,” she said, “because everyone who’s a patron of the library has to walk by that wall.”